Module teaching and integrating language skills lesson 1

URLs part 2
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In this section we will look at another part of the web address - the top level domains or TLDs. Don't worry about the terminology, that's not important, but it is important to understand what a TLD is.



.org is a very common TLD and is short for organisation. Another very common one is .com. In the initial questions you were asked to consider why the difference is important.

If we want to use the Internet with our students, we need to start thinking about evaluating websites. And one quick way to start this evaluation is to look at the TLD.

What do you think? Do you think the information on a .com website would be as balanced as on a .org website? .com sites often contain lots of useful information and activities but remember that they are commercial sites - they are trying to generate income - so you may have to pay for some services and they may contain advertising.Have a go at this quiz to see how well you know your top level domains. (Same quiz also linked from unit page).

There is more information on Wikipedia. Including information on country codes (e.g. .uk is from the United Kingdom) and generic top level domains (e.g. .com, .org).

Note that the use of top level domain names is pretty much unregulated now. If I wanted, I could buy a website name with either .org or .com. However, this process is still a good place to start when evaluating websites.